Odd News

FIRE BRIGADE TO HANDCUFFS USERS: DON'T GET STUCK: LONDON (AP) — London firefighters say they have freed hundreds of people with body parts trapped in household objects in the last three years, including 18 children with heads stuck in potties or toilet seats and 79 people trapped in handcuffs.

The London Fire Brigade speculated that the popularity of erotic novel "Fifty Shades of Grey" may account for a rise in handcuffs-related emergencies.

Since 2010, London firefighters have treated almost 500 people with rings stuck on their fingers, nine with rings stuck on their penises, and one man with his penis stuck in a toaster.

Rescue crews also helped five people with hands stuck in shredders and 17 children with their hands trapped in toys.

OWNER COULD FACE CHARGES FOR VENOMOUS SNAKES: SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Firefighters arrived at a Utah home to put out a blaze started by a kitchen range and discovered more than flames — 28 snakes, six of them deadly.

The man didn't have a permit for the six venomous snakes — five rattlers and a gaboon viper — and he may face misdemeanor charges for keeping them without a permit. The viper, native to Africa, is considered one of the most dangerous in the world with potent venom.

The snakes were inside cages in a separate room and were removed as firefighters quickly put out the blaze on Friday in Clearfield, about 30 miles north of Salt Lake City.

The seized rattlers will probably be released into the wild, and the viper could be sent to someone authorized to have it.

SCIENTISTS FIND MYSTERY COFFIN AT RICHARD III SITE: LONDON (AP) — A team of archaeologists said Monday it has unearthed an unusual coffin-within-a-coffin in the central England parking lot where it found the skeleton of King Richard III, and that they hope to identify the remains within.

University of Leicester scientists have been digging at the Grey Friars site in Leicester after finding the body of Richard there in September. He died nearby in 1485 at the Battle of Bosworth Field.

The team said it had discovered a fully intact medieval stone coffin during a dig in September but wasn't able to investigate it further at the time. When it was opened this week, the team said, it found a lead coffin within it, one likely to contain a "high status" individual.

Scientists think the lead coffin — which has a hole through which the deceased's feet can be seen — could contain one of the friary's founders, a medieval monk, or the remains of a 14th-century medieval knight, Sir William Moton.